After years of service, my Spirit 328 has officially retired. Now I do not use a console. My monitoring system is a Mackie Big Knob and controller is a Presonus Faderport.

The Faderport is sturdily built, nice light up buttons, smooth action but it has to use external power. I wish it could be USB powered and a dial for scrolling would be nice.

For all the external inputs I use two DIY summing mixer. One modified from a pair of SSL SL505 Line Amp and the other from an ADM M1922 stereo line/ mic card. I have never been happier from these two summing amp, they are so clean, even better than the Yamaha i88x I used before. I use the ADM M1922 for the Roland RD-3000SX Digital Piano and my orchestra samples, it adds a lot of body to the sound and is absolutely great for my orch. work.

I'm now using four computers in my studio.

First computer is a PC AMD XP1888+,with Korg OASYS soundcard running Windows ME. The Computer serves as a soft synth and email/ internet machine.

Second computer is an Asus A8V mb 3800+ AMD 24x2 with RME HD9624, Nvidia display card, and TWO UAD Powered Plugin card. This is my main computer for running Cubase SX3.0 sequencing and recording programme.

Third computer is a 3200+ AMD 24 with Steinberg 2496 soundcard ( I use the ADAT ouput only ) for running VST Stack, Kontakt 2, Halion and other VST Instruments. I use this computer for VST soft synths and for all string instruments in orchestral arrangement.

Fourth computer is a HP NX6325 laptop also AMD 24x2 based for running more VST instruments and Kontakt 2. I mainly use this computer for Horns and Woodwind sounds in orchestral arrangement.

All four computers are network together for file transfer.

There has been a lot of debates on hard vs soft synth. To me, there is nothing like a good hard synth. Hardware always sound more meaty without the need of adding a lot of extra processing. The PCI OASYS, however, is a very different beast; running on its own PCI card, it sounds awesome! The OASYS pci card is super and I have no idea why Korg discontine this product. It has all the power of a Triton, Trinity. It is a sampler, analog synth, S and S, VPM synthesis, physical modelling, super drum sound, the best of all Korg technology put into one card! The analog sounds are much bigger than any VSTi I've tried. And the drums are BIG! The EFX is flexible.The only complain I have is that it does not support multi card and sometimes I cannot use more than 3 sounds because they are sooo powerful and use up all the DSP power. But that's OK, I have other synths. It also has super onboard effects and with the ADAT connectors I can route signal from my recorder computer thru the OASYS for more effect processing.

Universal Audio powered plugin PCI card is KING! UAD plugins I am using:

LA-2A, LA-3A, 1176 LN, Fairchild, Neve 1073, Dreamverb, Plate 140, Pultec, Roland CE-1, Roland Dimension-D, Precision EQ, Precision Limiter, Precision Multi-Limiter.

For ADDA, I use the Frontier Tango 24 plus two Fostex VC8 for surround output and OTB effects.

Blue Room 5.1 setup PODS with matching Subwoofer,  Auratone.

The PODS are very weird looking to some people but I love their shape! Monitors are very personnel things and I find these monitors very accurate to my ears. I definitely mix better on them.

Lexicon 480L, Lexicon MPC 500, TC Electronic M2000, Roland SRV 3030, Line 6 Echo, ADA Microcab, Deltalab Effectron II (yeh still got one of these, but it has some good lo-fi delay and modulation). SRS Labs CSII surround encoder and decoder.

I've been relying more and more on software effects recently because they are convenient and automatable. They're good for guitars, synths and drums but when it comes to vocal, I always go back to hardware processors because they always sound better. Another major reason is the amount of money I spent on maintaining the hardware units: my Novation K-Station is getting kinda tempermental nowadays, I wish I'd got the soft-synth instead- cheaper, multitimbral plus upgradable at anytime, anywhere.

My choice of software effects: besides my UAD plugins, Wizoo 2 and 5 convulation reverbs ( great for 5.1 mix ), Audio Damage Reverence, Dubstation, Phase 2, Korg effects bundled with MS-20 soft synth, Sonic Timeworks Reverb 4080L, dalay and phaser, Freeverb ( yes it's free, untouchable for drums, but only drums ), Lexicon PSP 42.

For mic and line preamps I use: Three custom Modded ADM , can't remember the model no. but they are discrete, no IC path. The ADM are Super Great, very vintage sounding and is magic on Ribbon Mic. Well actually on anything! I also fitted in three JLM Audio D.I.s which can bring in direct guitar/ instrument input. I have never, never, never heard my D.I. Strat sounded so pure and nice.

Two DIY JLM audio BAD Animal mic/ line preamp. One uses a JLM 99V opamp which is very Neve sounding and the other uses a 70s' API 2520. The mid of both micpre are to die for and both fitted with JLM Active D.I..I believe now I have all the tone I want.

Groove Tubes MP-1 Micpre; A tube micpre and used to be my favourite. It is still great sounding but it has more colour than the others I have. I still use it on selected voice.

Yamaha i88x. Original bought as a mlan interface for my laptop but it has quite a problem with the driver. Got it working for a few months and then couldn't get it to reinstall. Finall give up and now use it as a preamp. It's onboard preamps are supposed to be the best among Yamaha products but comparing to the ADMs and JLMs they have less character and more noisy.

Joe Meek VC6Q. One of the earliest micpre I have. The micpre section is OK for its price. Now I mainly use the optical compressor section for tracking or mixing ( re-routing signals ).

ART VLA tube Dual Levelar (custom mod), FMR Audio RNC Compressor, TL-Audio VI-1 8 channel Valve Interface, Joe Meek VC6Q Voice Channel, Groove Tubes EQ-1 Tube passive EQ. ADM 320 Limiter, ADM 1540 inductance  EQs.

Cubase SX 3, Acid Pro 6, Wavelab 4, Vegas Pro, T-RackS Mastering, Halion, Steinberg V-Stack, Kontakt 2, Reason 2.0.

I have stopped using Gigastudio and transferred all the Giga sounds to Kontakt and Halion format. Gigastudio is the one of the worst sampler I have ever used, unstable, bad support extremely un-user-friendly ( try editing a sample/ patch ), I will never purchase another piece of Giga product although they now have VST version which is supposed to be more stable and user friendly.

UAD-1 plugins, all the freewares VST plugins you can find, plus Sonic Timeworks Reverb 4080, Delay 6022 and Compressor X ( all highly recommended ).  SRS Circle Surround encoder and Decoder, Spin Audio 3DPanner Studio, Waves Surround Bundle, Melodyn, Antares Autotune and Mic Modeller, Steinberg Mastering Package, D-Pole Filter, the Audio Damage products are superb and inexpensive, highly recommended, the Kjearhus Audio GEQ-7 , GMO-1 and his Classic plugins.

Again, all the freewares you can find. Some of them are exceptionally good as well. I highly recommend all the Muon synthesizers, Tritium Bassline. Then I also use the East West Stormdrums, Perssive Adventure 1 and 2, RVST, Adrenaline, Chris Hein Horns, Atmosphere, Native Instrument B4 Hammond Organ (nice and retro) , Pro52 ( don't use very often, non beats the original on sound and user friendly), Mysteron ( great thermin efx ),Halion and Kontakt 2. Korg Legacy Collection - MS-20, Wavestation, Poly Six.

Used to have an Ensoniq ASR-10 Sampler Module, but it has recently died of old age and now I am looking for an ASR-Pro to replace it ( yes I love this thing ), Emu SP-12 turbo drum machine (big and bad, my review here), Korg EX8000, Waldolf Micro-Q, Roland RD-300SX Digital Piano, also my controller, Roland MKS-80 Super Jupitor with MPG-80 Programmer ( I got them while people were busy throwing away analog synth. for US$400, ahh..., good old days), Oberheim Expander, Yamaha EX5R.

I am also using a Novation K-Station. Very easy to use and editing sound is a breeze. Killer sounds. Highly recommended. Too bad it is not multi-timbral, a VIRUS C would be nice, I tried it the other day and it's bass patches are earth shattering, no joking!

Frontier Tranzport, a remote controller you must have, it has made my life so much easier. Presonus Faderport. Akai MPD16 controller pad for those Taiko Hits. Electrix Filter Factory.

Groove Tube MP1a, sounds BIG.

Used to have a Rode Classic, but its high is too much for my taste and I ebayed it.

Blue Baby Bottle, great modern sound, fast and punchy.

Shinybox 46L Ribbon Mic. Originally a Chinese Ribbon mic but it has been modded and fitted with a Lundhal transformer. Very warm and natural sound.

My recent acquisition is a pair of Oktava MK012 pencil microphone. I have used them before and was totally impressed by it. The best mic for recording acoustic guitars. Now I have them modded and they are killer.

Groove Tubes AM44 small diaphragm tube condenser. Sounds  great on some string instruments but I mostly go for the Oktavas.

A pair of Crown Boundary Mic. Great for recording ambience.

Now this is a bizzare looking mic, the Holophone. It is on loan to me from SRS Hong Kong to do some experimental surround sound recording in CSII. Wouldn't like to drop it, it costs a fortune!